For 1966, little change was made to Ford’s hot-selling Mustang. You don’t mess with success, so why change a good thing? Minor Updates were all that were needed. A revised instrument panel that looked less like the Falcon’s was used. The grille retained its now-familiar shape, but had teh Mustang horse emblem “floating” in the “corral” in its center, with no horizontal or vertical dividing bars. A wind split ornament was added at the end of the “cove” on the body sides.

Federally mandated safety equipment that was formerly optional — including seat belts, a padded instrument panel, emergency flashers, electric windshield wipers (with washers) and dual padded sun visors — were made standard features. To cover the added cost of these must-have items, prices increased $44 for the two-door hardtop, and $18 for the 2+2 and $49 for the convertible.

The GT Equipment Group continues to be available in 1966 as a $152.50 option package for Mustangs with high-performance V-8 power plants. The GT Equipment Group included a dual exhaust system, front fog lamps, special body ornamentation, front disc brakes, GT racing stripes (in place of rocker panel moldings) and handling package components. The handling package (normally $30.84 extra by itself) included increased-rate front and rear springs, larger-diameter front and rear shock absorbers, a steering system with a 22:1 overall ratio and a large-diameter stabilizer bar.

The Mustang’s base V-8 engine for 1966 was the Code “G” 4.00 x 2.87-inch bore and stroke 289-cid with a 9.3:1 compression ration and an Autolite two-barrel carburetor, which produced 225 hp at 4800 and the Code “K” Challenger High-Performance V-8. This cersion of the “289″ featured a 10.5:1 compression ratio, a four-barrel Autolite carburetor and solid valve lifters, which helped it to make 271 hp at 6000 rppm.

A Mustang 2+2 with the Challenger High-Performance V-8 could do 0-to-60 in 7.6 seconds and needed about 15.9 seconds to make it down the quarter-mile.

The GT package proved to be twice as popular as it had been in 1965 and its sales increased from about 15,000 the earlier year to approximately 30,000.

With the 2010 Ford Mustang Shelby GT-500, the SVT Design Team has brought more ground-pounding while shaving off some of the intimidating power and all this with a measure of real comfort. Power is increased to a new 540 HP and 510 lb-ft of torque due to tuning and air flow engineering. That new-found power is funneled through a re-geared twin disc clutch six[speed manual transmission to an all-new 3.55 rear gear. Ford will officially commit to a “significant improvement in performance” and a top speed of 155 MPH. Wonder how long us car guys will be happy with that?

The suspension tuning for the convertible models gets the real-deal service with new dampers, springs, and anti-roll bars. Though still holding out with a solid axle, ride and handling are much improved over the 2009 model. That remains to be seen but one thing is not even in debate – this thing looks fabulous! Coupe or convertible, it’s your choice!